On This Day: 1982, Ceasefire agreed in Falklands

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

A ceasefire between British and Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands was agreed.
Margaret Thatcher made the statement to a packed House of Commons. The news was cheered by MPs from all parties.

More than 800 people died since the first British warships reached the remote UK territory on 22 April, 20 days after Argentina invaded South Georgia.
BBC correspondent Brian Hanrahan reported at 1530 local time (2030 BST) that British troops had been ordered not to use their weapons except in self-defence.
Hostilities officially ceased on 20 June 1982. The war cost the lives of 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen.
The victory greatly boosted the popularity of Margaret Thatcher's government which went on to win the next election.
Argentine president General Leopoldo Galtieri was deposed and served three years in prison for military incompetence. In October 1983 Argentina returned to civilian rule but it was 1990 before full diplomatic relations with Britain were restored.


(More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/14/newsid_2561000/2561187.stm)

[Tavarisch_Mike]

A strabge thing is that the left in Argentina seems to still think that this is a important thing (to get the islands back). :cursing:

[Conflict]

It's got to be up to the Islanders themselves what they want to be.

[MotherCossack]

i just heard some very unpleasant falkland islander on the wireless.... claiming that his home had never belonged to the argies and that it was perfectly proper for our boys to march right in there and grab'em back....
it was horrible.....give them all to pinochet thats what i say!

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

i just heard some very unpleasant falkland islander on the wireless.... claiming that his home had never belonged to the argies and that it was perfectly proper for our boys to march right in there and grab'em back....
it was horrible.....give them all to pinochet thats what i say!

He or she doesn't sound any more unpleasant than any other resident of an area who has a nationalist attachment to one government over another. Certainly, people living on the island are more credible on the topic than either Cameron or Kirchner.

Maybe this was your point, but Pinochet was in Chile not Argentina, it was Galtieri who was the thug who ran Argentina. Personally I wouldn't really want to live in either Latin American junta so I can understand the Falkland point of view.

That said, this dust-up was between two factions-the Argentinian rightwing and the British rightwing, so whoever won it would have been victory for a fairly unpleasant group of elites. Unfortunately for world history and for the British isles more specifically the "victory" allowed Thatcher's popularity to continue despite harsh economic conditions.


I don't think the British or Argentine States are institutions which I would trust to manage any territory anywhere, from the Falklands, to Patagonia, to London.